WB reduces '09 growth rate to 7.5%

China's economic growth may slow down to 7.5 percent next year, the lowest since 1990, the World Bank said yesterday.

The bank cut its forecast for next year from 9.2 percent but said the country has "adequate tools" to keep the economy moving at a healthy pace.

Though the bank expects a 9.4 percent growth this year, it said the global financial crisis would take a greater toll on the world's fourth-largest economy in 2009. The growth slowed to 9 percent in the third quarter of this year against 11.4 percent for the whole of last year.